Beer Swap!

Strange as it may sound, but being a dedicated beer geek can be somewhat lonely (my other hobbies include astrophysics, the board game Go and logical puzzles, so I’m somewhat used to hobbying by myself). Sure enough, plenty of people like beer, but only few want to continuously mumble about aroma, mouthfeel and how the oxidation influenced the taste of the beverage at hand. Online is the place to find your like-minded, typically, as all distances suddenly vanish.

Many, many years ago I stumbled upon the “Beer Geeks” facebook group. Back then there were about 250 members who shared their rare finds and geeked out about beer. Paradise. By now there are 16k members and the number of posts (and comments) is phenomenal. I stopped actively following at about 5k members, years ago. In the years in between I had been to festivals, outings and met for bottle shares a few times. I had also entered the “Beer Geeks Beer Swap”, a project that a few of the members spontaneously organized.

It’s huge nowadays!

The idea was simple: anyone can enter and once every (I believe…) two months, all who entered were randomly assigned somebody else to send a package of beer to. Every time you send one box and you receive one box to and from total strangers. You can imagine that when sending and receiving many boxes, sometimes things go wrong. Packages dont arrive, aren’t sent, are not to people’s satisfaction, you name it. It must be hell to organize one of these.

Eliminating disappointment as much as possible requires a set of clear rules. For example: how many beers should there be in a box? Can these be supermarket beers? Should these be homebrews? Or rather mega-hard-to-find “whales”? Is it better if your recipient gets beers they didn’t have before, or should you rather include their favorite brew? How do you communicate about what types of beer you want and which you don’t want? Many, many, many aspects to think about when setting up a project like this.

It is not too surprising that this takes a toll on those who volunteer to orchestrate. After a while (in fact, quite a long while!) the original organizers quit and the Swap was dead. I missed it. It was good fun. Getting a box is like opening the presents under a Christmas Tree and preparing a box for someone else is at least as much fun.

Not very long ago the Swap was revived by a different group of people. Yay, thank you!! It is now less frequent (once or twice a year) and has clear rules. Still, the variety of extras in the box, like glass-ware, goodies, snacks etc. vary wildly, but so far most people seem to be OK with that. When you’re in, please think a bit about the sacrifices that organizers make. It’s a tough job. Thank them and don’t be a prick if you feel the box you received does not live up to your standards. Trust me, everybody did their best to send you something nice. Thank your sender, too!

The three boxes I have received since the new edition.

We had three editions. I have done my utmost best to assemble boxes that are fun, without overdoing it. I think it is better to get a box that is great with unexpected stuff, then a box that is clearly filled to inflate the ego of the sender. The boxes I have received were also fantastic: it’s great to see the effort people put into the beer selectino and the extras. Almost always the package comes with a letter that explains what’s in and why. I love it.

For as long as it lasts with these organizers, I’ll be in and I’ll be doing my best. It’s one of the more social aspects of the online community. The Swap even has its own FB group now.